Egypt: Representation of a Polio victim, 18th Dynasty (1403-1365 BCE)

As early as 1400 BCE, this Egyptian stela portrayed a young man with a leg deformity showing the similar effects Polio causes. Polio was given it's first clinical description in 1789 by the British Physician, Michael Underwood and was recognised as a condition in 1840 by Jakob Heine. In 1908, polio virus was identified as the cause for polio, by Karl Steiner Around the 1800's Polio was still a very uncommon disease with rarely any cases. But in the 1900's there was a large, global outbreak of the virus, especially in countries of unsanitary living standards and even in counties with high living standards (many European countries and in North America). In 1952, at the height of the Polio outbreak, in the United States, around 60,000 cases were reported with 20,000 resulting in a mild to disabling paralysis and approximately 3,000 deaths. Editor: Deutsches Grünes Kreuz